Amir Khan vs. Danny Garcia Set for Saturday on HBO!

By FightFan News Wire (10-Jul-2012)

Rising star Amir Khan makes his 2012 ring debut when he he meets undefeated phenom and current WBC Super Lightweight World Champion Danny ‘Swift’ Garcia this Saturday, July 14 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in a fight televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing.

Photo: Big Joe Miranda / BigJoesPics.com

Amir Khan: “Every fighter has something special about them and with Danny he seems like a tough fighter who comes forward and likes to exchange and likes to throw big bombs and stuff. We have a great sparring for this fight and we’ve had a great training camp so we’ll be ready for whatever he brings to the table.”

Danny Garcia: “I’m fighting a young guy like me with speed and power. You’ve got to fight the best to be the best. Khan says he’s one of the best. I’m the champion. I want to fight the best and we’re going to make our adjustments in the ring, follow the game plan, and come out victorious.”

Video courtesy of HBO

FORMER UNIFIED SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT
WORLD CHAMPION AMIR “KING” KHAN TO FACE CURRENT
WBC SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT WORLD CHAMPION
DANNY “SWIFT” GARCIA ON JULY 14AT
THE MANDALAY BAY EVENTS CENTER IN LAS VEGAS
LIVE ON HBO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING

Former Unified Super Lightweight World Champion Amir ‘King’ Khan makes his 2012 ring debut when he returns to the venue of perhaps his most accomplished professional triumphwhen he meets undefeated phenom and current WBC Super Lightweight World Champion Danny “Swift” Garcia Saturday, July 14 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in a fight televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing.

“Khan vs. Garcia,” a 12-round super lightweight bout, is presented by Golden Boy Promotions and Khan Promotions and sponsored by Corona and AT&T. The fight will be broadcast live on HBO World Championship Boxing at 11:00 p.m. ET/ PT in the United States and live on Sky Sports 1HD in the United Kingdom at 1:00 a.m. GMT on July 15.

Khan-Garcia Quotes:

Amir Khan

Training camp has gone really well. It’s been a very long camp for me because of the first fight that got called off against Lamont Peterson, so I’ve still kept training and we’ve just been very professional and focused on what we need to do. The game plan not really changes much because it’s quite similar fighters. We’re going to be more than ready. We’re going to bring the ‘A’ game to the table and come July 14 we’re going to put on a great fight for the fans and for all the fans watching at home. I’m looking forward to it and hopefully the game plan that we have for the fight will be perfect and we’ll win the fight.

Well, you never go into a fight and you think it’s going to be easy. Every fight is a tough fight and I always like to train like a challenger and train very, very hard. When the new name came up and we spoke to Golden Boy Promotions and they said, “What do you think of Danny Garcia as a new opponent?” I jumped to the occasion and the reason we got Danny and we got this fight so quickly after the Pederson fight got called off because Ramadan is coming up and I want to take off boxing around that time. It’s a week before Ramadan this fight’s going to happen so it works out perfect.

When I saw videos of Danny Garcia, I remember watching the highlights when he beat Erik Morales and won the WBC title. He’s a good fighter and it’s a name that I thought in the future it will happen because he’s young, he’s coming up, and there will be a big fight because of any world champion out there, he’s a good fighter. I thought I’m going to keep an eye on this name. Maybe one day when they ask me for opponents I can put the name to my team, what do we think about Danny Garcia?

The fight came up and when Golden Boy asked me I said, “Look, I’d love to take that fight.” I think it is a similar fight because Danny is strong. Peterson is strong. We both have kind of similar speed and similar movements and stuff and also with both being orthodox, I think it helps. The game plan had to kind of change a little bit from the Peterson fight, but the training we’d been doing and the conditioning work was just kind of perfect.

Took a couple of weeks off and then went back to training camp again and kind of reviewed everything and kind of got a new game plan for the fight. We’re going to be more than ready for this fight. We know what to do and I think maybe the fight we had lined up before was a fight that maybe is going to give us more experience and in a way help me a little bit more because it’s giving me extra training and I’ve spent more time in the gym.

Every fighter has something special about them and with Danny he seems like a tough fighter who comes forward and likes to exchange and likes to throw big bombs and stuff. We have a great sparring for this fight and we’ve had a great training camp so we’ll be ready for whatever he brings to the table. That’s one thing about me, I train very hard when I’m in the gym and I go through all different kinds of sparring partners, all different kinds of training methods just to be ready for this fight. We will be ready because I know this is a big, big fight for me.

Danny Garcia

I’ve had a great training camp. I feel good. I feel strong and I’m just ready July 14 to give the fans a great fight.

It’s a different fight. I’m fighting a young guy like me with speed and power. Anytime you put two young guys in there going to give the fans a great fight and like I said before, you’ve got to fight the best to be the best. Khan says he’s one of the best. I’m the champion. I want to fight the best and we’re going to make our adjustments in the ring, follow the game plan, and come out victorious.

I don’t feel like it’s too soon. If you’re the world champion who are you supposed to fight? Are you supposed to fight bums and pad your record? If you’re the world champion you’re supposed to fight the best people in their prime and that’s what I want to do. I want to be the best and when you’re the champ you’ve got to fight the best. That’s what I want to do. I want to build my legacy starting young.

Man, a win would be big. It would put me in a new category, superstar category, and we’ve been working and I’m pretty sure that we’re going to get the job done.

Tickets priced at $250, $200, $150, $100 and $50, not including applicable service charges, are available for purchase at the Mandalay Bay box office and all Las Vegas Ticketmaster locations (select Smith’s Food and Drug Centers and Ritmo Latino). To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets also are available for purchase atwww.mandaylaybay.com or www.ticketmaster.com. Tickets for fans traveling from the United Kingdom are available for purchase online at www.sportscorporation.com or by calling +44 (0)845 163 0845.

Amir “King” Khan (26-2, 18 KOs), who at only 25 years old is already a star in the United Kingdom, selling out huge arenas and racking up impressive pay-per-view numbers. Considered one of the sport’s future stars, Khan has sailed to the heights of the worlds of amateur and professional boxing, however, he is far from finished on his quest to becoming the best of his era. An accomplished amateur who earned a silver medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens at only 17 years old, the Bolton, England native took the professional game by storm in 2005 and, with the exception of a brief bump in the road in 2008 when he was upset by Breidis Prescott, Khan has since been nearly unstoppable. Khan first became a world champion in July 2009 when he defeated WBA Super Lightweight World Champion Andreas Kotelnik. Khan defended the crown five times, first knocking out previously undefeated Dmitriy Salita in less than one round. Next, in his United States debut at Madison Square Garden in May 2010, he dominated the always tough and current WBA Welterweight World Champion Paul Malignaggi en route to an 11th round technical knockout win. On December 11, 2010 at Mandalay Bay, Khan battled Marcos Maidana in what was eventually named the Boxing Writers Association of America 2010 Fight of the Year. The fight saw Khan dominate the early rounds, scoring a first round knockdown, but Maidana closed the gap in the later rounds. Khan displayed some extremely impressive fortitude in surviving a vicious 10th round onslaught by Maidana in which the British star looked to be on the brink of being knocked out. Khan made it out of the round on his feet and came out swinging in the 11th and 12th rounds, sealing the unanimous decision victory in an instant classic.

On April 16, 2011, Khan retained his title by defeating European Champion Paul McCloskey via technical decision in front of a sold-out crowd of more than 17,000 at the MEN Arena in Manchester, England. Next came a July 23, 2011 win over then IBF Junior Welterweight Champion Zab Judah, making Khan the unified 140-pound world champion. Next up was an IBF mandatory bout against Lamont Peterson, and in another Fight of the Year candidate on December 10 of last year, Khan lost a controversial split decision and his titles. A rematch was the first order of business, but after Peterson failed a pre-fight drug test and their scheduled May 19 bout was canceled, Khan was forced to look for another big fight. Luckily, he found it in the form of a bout against WBC Super Lightweight World Champion Danny Garcia on July 14.

The latest world champion to emerge from the fighting city of Philadelphia, WBC Super Lightweight World Champion Danny “Swift” Garcia (23-0, 14 KOs) is unbeaten and untouched as a pro, a testament to his world-class talent, style and determination. A United States Olympic alternate who compiled a 107-13 record as an amateur and won the 2005 Under-19 National Championship, the 2005 International Championship in Finland and the 2006 United States National Championship before deciding to turn pro in November 2007, Garcia’s road to the top has been a smooth one for him, but not for his opponents. After winning seven of his first eight professional fights by knockout, Garcia began showing aspects of his game other than his power as his level of competition increased. By mid-2009, he started to make his move with knockouts of well-regarded Pavel Miranda, Oscar Leon and Enrique Colin, the latter fight earning him the WBC Youth Intercontinental title. 2010 was even more impressive for Garcia as he defeated top prospect Ashley Theophane and stopped contenders Jorge Romero and Mike Aranoutis, before announcing his arrival to the world in 2011. Last year, “Swift” defeated former World Champions Nate Campbell and Kendall Holt in successive bouts, earning himself a shot at a world title against legendary future Hall of Famer Erik Morales. In that fight on March 24 earlier this year, Garcia was in top form, knocking the Mexican icon down in the 11th round en route to a unanimous decision and the world championship. As the old adage goes, winning the title is the easy part, defending it is the tough part. After a celebratory few months that included being honored by Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, the tough part now begins for Garcia, and the 24-year-old is ready to defend his belt against all comers, starting with an extremely stiff test in former Two-Time World Champion Amir Khan this summer in Las Vegas.

For more information, visit www.goldenboypromotions.com, www.amirkhanworld.com, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GoldenBoyBoxing, www.twitter.com/AmirKingKhan, www.twitter.com/DannySwift, or visit us on Facebook at Golden Boy Boxing Facebook Fan Page, Amir Khan Facebook Fan Page or Danny Swift Garcia Facebook Fan Page. Follow HBO Boxing news at www.hbo.com/boxing, on Twitter @hboboxing and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/hboboxing. Follow Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino news at www.mandalaybay.com, on twitter at www.twitter.com/mandalaybay_LV or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mandalaybay.

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